Cannes: 'Nymphomaniac' Producer Reveals Graphics Are Used in 'Groundbreaking' Sex ScenesA producer for Lars von Trier's hotly anticipated two films tells THR of the sex scenes: "Above the waist it will be the star and the below the waist it will be the doubles.”Source: THR

The details of Lars von Trier's upcoming two-part sex epic Nymphomaniac are being tightly guarded, with producers Zentropa and sales agent TrustNordisk engaging in a teasing slow reveal with fans and the media.

So far, Zentropa has put out just three photos of the film -- two stills and a porn-inspired cast photo -- along with the official poster showing an erotically charged design evocative of female genitalia.

But a few details of the hotly anticipated project have slipped out. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in Cannes, Nymphomaniac producer Louise Vesth provided a sneak peek into what we can expect. Vesth confirmed that the doubled-barreled feature will include graphic sex scenes between the members of the all-star cast, including Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgard, Shia LaBeouf and Uma Thurman.

For the truly hard-core elements of the film, von Trier used body doubles for the stars. But, Vesth revealed, the Danish director will use digital technology to combine the actors' non-explicit displays with the pornographic performance of the doubles.

“We shot the actors pretending to have sex and then had the body doubles, who really did have sex, and in post we will digital-impose the two,” Vesth explained. “So above the waist it will be the star and the below the waist it will be the doubles.”

The extensive post-production work required to create such match-ups is one reason why von Trier's film wasn't ready for Cannes. Last week, the producers announced that the film would not do the festival circuit at all, bypassing Venice and Toronto to instead go out first in Denmark, with distributor Nordisk Film holding a red carpet gala premiere in Copenhagen ahead of a local release on Dec. 25.

Vesth didn't rule out that the film could be ready before then but suggested it was unlikely. “The film is in two parts but it is really one film, so [von Trier] has to finish both parts first,” she said.

At the Berlin market in February, Trust screened five minutes of images from the first part of Nymphomaniac for international distributors who pre-bought the picture, and some in the Danish industry have seen more extensive footage. Buyers speaking to THR would give only vague descriptions of the film's imagery, saying Trust made them sign confidentiality agreements to not reveal too much.

Vesth was a bit more forthcoming, confirming that von Trier will use experimental graphical elements in the two Nymphomaniac films, using double exposures and imposing words and symbols over the action as part of his storytelling. One buyer who screened early footage of the first film called the technique “groundbreaking...like nothing I've ever seen.”

But sex and style are apparently only a small part of Nymphomaniac.

“Lars has thrown everything in this one. It's about religion, about God, about philosophy,” said Vesth, adding that she hopes von Trier ends his self-imposed ban on talking publicly, which followed his controversial Nazi comments in Cannes two years ago. “There's so much to talk about with this movie. I hope he changes his mind and starts giving interviews again.”

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

For the truly hard-core elements of the film, von Trier used body doubles for the stars. But, Vesth revealed, the Danish director will use digital technology to combine the actors' non-explicit displays with the pornographic performance of the doubles.

“We shot the actors pretending to have sex and then had the body doubles, who really did have sex, and in post we will digital-impose the two,” Vesth explained. “So above the waist it will be the star and the below the waist it will be the doubles.”

We can't remember the last time a Lars Von Trier movie got this kind of marketing rollout, but then again, there hasn't really been a film like "Nymphomaniac." With the story detailing one woman's sexual history, the promise of hardcore sex for those who want it (there will be a softcore cut too) and this cast photo, it looks like Von Trier not only will be pushing people's buttons, he'll be entirely rearranging them. Revealed today were another couple of morsels from the movie.

The chapter titles for the two volume, eight-part movie has been revealed and they're actually fairly tame...for the most part. Though we do have to wonder -- is chapter 6 really making a reference to fisting? If that's not enough, LVT proposes that he is introducing a film genre with "Nymphomaniac" called Digressionism. Okay, then. Anyway, this is all the start of Marvel-esque rollout for the movie that kicks off next month, with teasers, still and more details planned to drop for each chapter until the film's Christmas Day debut overseas.

No word yet on when Magnolia Releasing will give U.S. audiences a taste but hopefully we won't be waiting too long. Here's the official press release and full chapter titles below, along with a new image of LVT gagged by duct tape. Obviously.

In 2011 Lars von Trier decided to refrain from all public statements and interviews. To this date he has kept his word.

But his stories are still being told worldwide and Nymphomaniac will be no exception. Using a structure known from literature Nymphomaniac consists of chapters, encapsulating both VOLUME I and VOLUME II and during the next eight months, starting from June and like domino pieces counting down to the release, small bites of these chapters will be published exclusively by a community of selected newspapers around the world.

Each chapter teaser is defined by a headline, a still and a short narrative that playfully unveils the multilayered universe of Nymphomaniac with which Lars von Trier wants to introduce a new film genre: Digressionism.

"The film is divided into chapters. And Trier first asks me to look away. There is one thing I'm not allowed to see because it would reveal the whole point of the chapter. He then pushes some keys on the keyboard and a scene starts on the middle screen. Stellan Skarsgård sits down and wears a black, knitted sweater. Behind him, the walls are yellow and worn. One corner of a room. He speaks English. "Can I ask what happened to the silent duck?" he asks Charlotte Gainsbourg. The answer comes in the form of a flashback. A scene in which a man forms a beak with four fingers, spits on them and stick them up between her buttocks. We initially avoid laughter followed by comments. Then, he plays the film's introduction. With thin white writing it says "Nymphomaniac Vol 1". Then it gets dark on the screen. And for a longer while you only hear sounds. A train, I think of first. A cracking, at least. Wind, maybe even rain. And something that could be an old sign that gives way to the wind. When the picture finally comes you see an alley where snow gently falls. Water flowing down the yellow and brown walls. Then a blower. A garbage can. And the water that hits a ribbed sheet metal roof. Rust and water. Age and wear. Unmistakable Trieresque beauty. And there she is, Charlotte Gainsbourg, in the middle of the alley. With blood on her hand. "You don't want to say anything at all that I can quote?" I try one last time when we later say goodbye in the parking lot. And I can't even quote his reply. "

The unknown actress Stacy Martin, 22, is Danish film director Lars von Trier's latest muse. The former model with Premier Model Management, who was too short for the runway and looks like Jane Birkin, stars in his new movie, Nymphomaniac, which follows the erotic life of a woman from birth to the age of 50.

The provocative film in two parts, which features real sex scenes with porn doubles in softcore and hardcore versions, will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Starring alongside Shia LaBeouf as his girlfriend, Martin is the younger version of Joe aged 15 to 31, a nymphomaniac, played later in life by Charlotte Gainsbourg – so its handy Martin looks like Gainsbourg's mother Birkin.

"What scared me wasn't the nakedness but it was interacting naked. Shia was very professional but we didn't actually do anything sexual," says Martin meekly, who is sitting in a café in London's Covent Garden. "That was left to the porn doubles. It's a totally different industry. The porn stars finish the job off for you. I never thought I'd meet my porn double," she laughs.

Martin remembers when she met von Trier in Copenhagen last year. She had always admired his films including Dogville starring Nicole Kidman, Melancholia starring Kirsten Dunst and Antichrist, starring Willem Dafoe and Gainsbourg.

"I'd only had three hours sleep because I was so nervous. I decided to stay awake on the plane so my eyes weren't puffy. Suddenly he was there in front of me, I was speechless. We just stood there starring at each other for a very long time," she says.

Von Trier and Martin talked a lot about what she could bring to the table as far as the character was concerned. "We were clear this film wasn't about nakedness, but that it was part of the story. So I was comfortable with it. Lars wanted to celebrate the female desire and show we have flaws, we are human beings and not perfect," she says. "There was a lot of pressure on me as the vehicle of his vision. He said to me, 'Just take it day by day, scene by scene. It will all come together.' There is an element of trust. I had to keep remembering that he chose me, or else I wouldn't be there if I wasn't capable. Sometimes I was rubbish and he allowed me to get that out of the way."

But it was challenging for Martin, who had no acting experience, to be thrust in front of the camera as LaBeouf's assertive girlfriend, with more naked scenes than most actresses have in a lifetime. It was filmed over 55 days in and around Cologne. The first part of the film is about Joe's younger life, the second part is when Gainsbourg takes over. The two parts of the film do not follow on from one another but are interwined.

"As the younger Joe, she is aware she is a sex addict but not to the point that it is a disease. At 15, she's just discovering men and friendships in the 1960s," says Martin. "It is a very interesting relationship she has with her boyfriend.

Martin, who is "itching" for her next role, joined an A-list cast including Uma Thurman, who plays one of her lover's wives, Christian Slater who plays her father, and Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard, as an older bachelor, who listens to the nymphomaniac's life story told through Gainsbourg.

"In one scene I wear disgusting tight red high-waisted spandex pants which were absolutely vile with a zip and slutty tights and a tiny top like a handkerchief for a night out on the pull," she says in horror. "I looked in the mirror and kept telling myself, 'You can do this'. But the film is about a lot more than sex. There is a lot of humour which I hope people will understand. It is a story – it's not a porn movie."

The half-French Martin, who goes out with Daniel Blumberg, the singer of indie band Yuck, grew up in Paris. She lived in Japan from the age of seven to 13 with her dad, Rene, a hair stylist and her mum Annette – then she returned to Paris until she moved to London aged 18 hoping to make it as an actress. Modelling was just a side job to fund her life in London – she saved up to do private acting classes, studied the Meisner technique of acting at the Actors' Temple, and studied Media and Cultural Studies at the London College of Communications.

She had two auditions in London and one audition in Copenhagen for von Trier's film. "When a few weeks later I heard I got the part, it was like, 'OK, don't freak out'."

She says von Trier is "extremely quiet" on set and "gives a lot of freedom". "He doesn't give you tons of instructions, just lets you improvise. He will sit and see what you come up with. To work in that way is fabulous." A lot of the film was shot on a handheld camera. "Whatever happens, he gives a lot of power to the actors he works with. You are not like a puppet. He moulds the work rather than makes it concrete."

She says she never sat down with her older self, played by Gainsbourg to discuss the character but the two performances were allowed to merge naturally. "I haven't seen Charlotte's scenes but I've heard we match pretty well. Originally Lars didn't want to cast me so the fact I look like her mother Jane Birkin was not the reason why I got the part. I got it because I did a good screen test," she says.

Peter Aalbaek Jensen, von Trier's producing partner, claimed the director "wanted to see the sexual arousement of a girl" on screen. Skarsgard told The Hollywood Reporter the film is "sexually explicit but, believe me, it will be a very bad wanking movie". LaBeouf said: "I know he's a very dangerous director; I know we are trying to do something different."

The film goes back and forth over the years looking at Joe's life and her background – often scenes were filmed spontaneously. Martin says: "What was challenging to play was her determination. I'm the kind of person who will make sure everybody is OK. She is the opposite – she is very focused on what she wants and very mathematical. It was also challenging because it was my first film and it was with Lars and other big actors and I thought, 'This is a big shoe to step into'. But I just had to jump in there."

She is already excited about attending the premiere in a few months, but also wary. "I'm quite nervous about my parents seeing the film. My mum is naturally feeling quite protective. It's quite embarrassing for me to see myself have sex. I might be hiding my eyes."

the sound in that clip is terrific! it makes me think of an interview where he talks about antonioni. how he at a very young age saw a scene from la notte on television and how that scene made him realize how "beautiful the movie universe was". in the scene, the two main characters is sitting in a car talking in a traffic jam, and the sound from outside is ridiculous low, while their voices is really clear in the sound mix. he loved how that made the atmosphere unrealistic and abstract. it may not be the same thing here, but I do think the sound in that clip makes the whole scene really creepy and builds up the tension in a great way.

I don't know what I think of the blonde girls acting, but anyway... good little tease. I can't wait for the actual act.